Back in the game. Full on.

I have stopped losing weight since February and I am at a comfortable 128. And at a good 23% body fat. Not bad.
There has been a few pounds of muscle that has been added since then and I could not be happier with the results these past 10 months have brought me.

I know I've worked hard to get where I am today. Sweat, hard work and determination have all become 1 in my life. I am so proud of myself. I really am.

But I am not satisfied. Not fully, anyways.

Call it obsession, call it being vain, call it anything. I just want to get to a point where I am 110% satisfied with my body. Maybe 10 more pounds will do it? Maybe going down to a 19% body fat? I don't know. Maybe reaching that level of satisfaction will never come.

I will never know until I try.

How to Find the Time.

We all lead busy lives. I know. I have one.

What with work, school, laundry, cleaning, cooking, KIDS.....Phew, I know how hard it must be for some people to even try to squeeze in some exercise time in their busy schedules. The day does not give us many hours and we have other things to worry about. So the last thing we want to do at the end of the day is get our exhausted butts out of our PJs, into our workout clothes and drag ourselves to the Gym.

But, you need to make up your mind. What is more important? What will take you one step closer to your goals?
Taking that nap or getting on the treadmill?
Ordering Chinese food? Or cooking a healthy meal?

No one said it was going to be easy. Weight loss is very hard. But if you want to fit into those size 3 jeans or into that bikini, then it is going to take a lot of sweat, determination and sore muscles to get there.
I have told several people that giving birth was a piece of cake compared to losing these 50 lbs. The beginning was brutal. But my body slowly started to adapt to the healthy lifestyle and my 6-7 day trips to the local fast food joint has turned to twice a month. The thought of a greasy pizza or french fries (my once favorite food) does not appeal to me anymore. At all. I think I am most proud of that :)

If you have kids and give yourself that excuse of not having time to exercise. I am calling you bluff.
When I have Lily and there is no one to watch her or when she has already taken her nap, I do this. I make sure she has a clean diaper. I make sure she has had her breakfast, lunch or dinner. I set up a blanket in front of the TV with all her favorite toys. Put her water bottle there. Give her my phone or whatever other gadget she likes to tinker with. Then I push play.
I have a decent fussy kid. And she already is getting the idea she is very spoiled so I never thought I would be able to even do 5 minutes of my workout with her in the house AND being awake.
But there is something about me moving around, and the music on the video that captivates her. She absolutely loves seeing me workout. And not only her, but I have also noticed that my niece stops in her tracks whenever she comes over and sees me in the middle of my workout. Oh and she is currently during the terrible 2s.

Give it a try and you might be surprised at how much your little one behaves during your workout.

Remember though, One can have all the gym memberships they can afford. All the personal trainers, all the gym equipment, a fridge full of healthy food. But if your mind and body are not 100% in it......I guarantee you will not succeed.

It only takes one single negative thought to break you.
Change your mindset, change your body.

Still alive. Still counting.

Ah.How I miss blogging. Such a long break but I am back and I will try my hardest to do daily posts again. It's just so Damn hard what with work, baby, taking care of the household, trying to find time for my lenghty workouts AND still count every single calorie. Man, I honestly do not know how the Hell I find time to go to Disneyland all those times ;)
My workouts are way more intense than before. A lot more.
I am still doing high intensity cardio 7 times a week.......yup, 7 times. But I also have started heavy weight lifting. I started with The Chalean Extreme program in late January. Which many have called the P90X for women. I now do the actual P90x 3 times a week, along with my Chalean Extreme twice a week.
My results? Well, I started lifting at 124 pounds and a size 5.
I now weigh 128 and went down to a 3. Or size 26.
I couldn't be more happy! Heavy weights killed my plateau. They toned my body so much that I actually have muscles without having to flex.
I don't care that the scale went up a few pounds. Muscle weighs more than fat.
Muscle is my new best friend.

1 month results of low carb/high protein diet.

I started this new lifestyle exactly 1 month ago. I eliminated practically all the Carbs from my diet. It wasn't easy, but oh so worth it.

Here is the lowdown......................I gave up bread of any kind (not even whole wheat) No pasta, No starchy vegetables, like potatoes and corn. No processed, frozen foods (like Lean Cuisines, Smart ones, etc...), no refined sugars (the only sugars I was consuming were from fruits) I also slowly gave up breakfast cereals and oatmeal. It has been 4 days since I've had any cereal in the morning and my body is already getting used to the change. I have way more energy than before (and believe me when I say I already had a ton to begin with)
Cereal was the hardest thing to give up. I loved, loved, loved my Fiber Plus Berry Yogurt cereal. That was so yummy and I thought I was doing my body good by eating it in the morning. I mean, it's full of Fiber and it was one of the most expensive, healthy cereals out there right now. It should be good for me, right? Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
Not only does one serving contain over 35 grams of carbs, it is also high in calories so I never felt a satisfying full after one cup of it. Plus it has a ton of added sugar. Also no bueno.
I always noticed how hungry I got after 2 hours of eating cereal or oatmeal. Why is that? Because of CARBS.
What do carbs do again? To keep it simple, they raise your insulin levels (give you that sugar high) then you crash, then you want more and more of them in a short amount of time. To make it worse, if you are not very active, the majority of those carbs quickly get stored as fat. Diabetes anyone?

So, in one month I ate over 100 grams of protein, worked out every day, only rested twice in those 30 days (I know, I'm fucking crazy!) I only lost one pound but I gained more muscle. Which is what I wanted.
My muscle definition is much more noticeable, I feel like a different person. I am so proud of all the hard work I am putting into my body, I just feel like sharing my experiences with everyone who is willing to give it a listen :)

Thank you everyone for you words of encouragement. That seriously keeps me going!

Finally! Abs of steel :)

Today is going to be a lazy, hazy day.

Let's see.......My last recovery day (rest day from exercise) was January 30th and I knew the day would come when I needed to give my body a break. The thing is, my body feels good!
I know all about the risk of over training your body when you go for a long period of time with no rest, but the super elite athletes who train over 3 hours a day are more prone to it. I am not quite there yet.

My period came early this month though. 2 weeks early to be exact :/
Today is the first day and I can feel the insane cravings for carbs to kick in (I want some damn cereal!) But no, I wont give in. My mom even came over this morning to pick up Lily and had a huge bag of Mexican sweet bread with her. I told her to take it with her. She should know better. I need to be in control. My environment needs to be carefully controlled. I always tell Andrew he needs to hide any junk he brings into the house (He LOVES chips) He needs to hide it, if not, I will be tempted to pour soap over it and throw it in the trash.
I've done it before. Many, many times.

So, I am off from work today, Lily is at her Grammys AND I have decided to give my body a day off from exercise. I think I'll spend it reading and watching I Love Lucy reruns. Maybe I'll kick it with the twin later on :D

My favorite thing to watch on boring days.

The itch to workout will come around 3pm. I hope I can fight it............................

The Aftermath of a binge day.

I will never give up my alcohol ;)

I was a bad girl on Saturday night. I drank way too much and had a cheeseburger
and fries at 3am. My poor body was a disaster.

Our night started out at a bar in Upland. I believe I had 3 margaritas there. Then before I knew it, we were on our way to Downtown Fullerton. Slidebar! Me and Gina looked so cute ;)
I had 4 more mixed drinks (or 5) Either way, I still had a pretty good buzz going on. It was a fuuuuuuuuuuuun night. On our way home (still buzzing it pretty good) We stopped by Del Taco and pigged the eff out! The cheeseburger tasted pretty salty. That's all I remember. Fell asleep around 3:30am. Woke up at 8am. And just for the fun of it, I stepped on the scale.

I Gained 4 lbs.

I knew the number was going to be up. But I also knew it wasn't going to be due to weight gain (the only way I can actually gin 4 lbs of fat in one night, is if I eat over 10,000 calories) It was mostly water weight from the excessive drinking and high sodium, late night, high fat meal.
By the time I was at work, I was so bloated, I looked 6 months pregnant. Ugh. I also had the worst gas cramps in the world! I felt so guilty. Not because I cheated but because of the hell I was putting my body through. It has been so good to me so far. It housed a healthy baby for 9 months, was able to naturally give birth, and it is slowly transforming itself to my dream body. How can I treat it this way??

2 days later, I am happily at 124 again. Whew! It only took a lot of water drinking and sweating buckets to get rid of the water weight.

In conclusion, I have learned my lesson. Even though this was my first crazy, binge day in literally months, I will never do it again. But I am still having a few drinks here and there, Del Taco will just never follow right after.

Remember, food is never worth it....................................but drinks are!

Yes. There is life after carbohydrates.

My cereal section keeps getting smaller and smaller.

I had around 15 boxes of cereal just a couple of months ago. No joke. I seriously had that much damn cereal. Mind you, it was only the "healthy" ones. Like Kashi, Special K, Total, Fiber Plus, Fiber One, More Kashi, Bran....etc.

I work mornings almost every day (5am or 3am shifts) so I  usually don't have time to prepare a healthier, protein filled breakfast. So cereal with fat free milk and around 4 cups of coffee has been my on the go breakfast for a very long time. I thought it was a good choice. I was still losing weight with that morning, diet routine but then I discovered Primal Living.
Which basically means eliminating ALL processed carbs from your diet. So you would only get your carbs from your fruits and veggies. No grains whatsover. Nothing. Bye bye bread.
Ok, so I still haven't giving up my carbs all together. I am doing it slowly, gradually. Not cold turkey. I only eat my bowl of cereal in the morning and that's it. But after these boxes on top of my fridge are gone (I give it another month) I will no longer be a cereal buyer. Now, my snacks have been fruit, nuts, beef jerky, cottage cheese or celery with all natural peanut butter. My lunch options are usually a nice juicy piece of steak with a huge salad, or a huge chicken breast with steamed veggies. My dinner is always weird. Like today for example, I am having a 3 cheese omelet with extra lean turkey bacon. C,mon, who doesn't want to eat this way!
I know what you are thinking.........."That''s way too much protein!!! You are going to bulk up" Ha! Nope. It is very difficult for a female to achieve the bodybuilder body. It takes hours upon hours of heavy weightlifting a day, seven days a week (I mean over 100 lbs, not the wimpy 2 20lb dumbbells that I use) to get even close to that body. I must admit though, since going semi primal (2 weeks ago?) I have noticed my muscles are popping out just a little. No, I don't mean it in a nasty, manly sort of a way. My body looks more defined and toned now than ever before. (My back and abs are my favorite!)
Plus, I am more fuller. Eating carbs made me feel the complete opposite.
And remember what I keep saying about HOW your body burns fat. IT BURNS CARBS FIRST!!!.........................THEN FAT. So tell me, how many carbs do you really want in your body?

It really makes me wonder why I didn't eat this way a long time ago................It is changing my life.